House of open doors
by Pandoala
Summary: When Tino moved into his new apartment there was a lot of things he wasn t expecting. Arguing neighbours, a landlord who rather cooks than worries about the tenants and an intimidating swede. But as Tino decend into this madness his own broken heart starts to heal. Pity you can t say the same about his sanity. Varius slight pairings. Warning, attempt at humor.
1. Chapter 1

House of open doors

I hadn`t thought much about how balconies looked like until I moved into my apartment in the city. These days I can`t stop looking at them. Some are embedded in the house itself. Some are small, just a place to stand at when you are smoking. Others are made to actually be a little garden outside your apartment.  
What made me react on the ones on my new house was that they where big, and sat very close together. It was so you could jump between them to the identical house next to mine. Still, they managed to let in light between them.  
But that wasn`t my main concern at the moment. I had moved here to get away. From my old life, from snooping family members, from him...  
"A light balcony was great." I thought optimistically.  
It didn't take me long to find the landlord's apartment on the ground floor. Apparently he was supposed to be called Sadik Adnan. What surprised me was that his door was already slightly open, letting out exotic music and a smell of food. It hardly even took three seconds after that I had knocked for him to reach the door.  
"Now what?" He asked a bit rudely in my opinion.  
"My name is Tino Väinämöinen. I was supposed to move in here today?" I tried to be polite but I am sure my irritation and nervousness was clear on my voice. Sadik's attitude changed in a flash and his mouth broke out in a big friendly grin.  
"Ah, I remember. Just let me get my shoes and the keys and I will show you to the apartment."  
I didn't have to wait for long before he was ready to go. He led me two stairs up and I noted on my way up that more doors where open, letting out sounds and smells from the people living in there. When passing some doors I even got some curious glancings and polite nods from the inhabitants. Finally Sadik got to my door, unlocked it and gave me the key. With some instructions and advice he then left me on my own to explore.  
It was nothing fancy. Two rooms and a kitchen, big windows, a door that led to the balcony. I loved it.  
Leaving my door open I left to get my things.  
Only when I got there I was meet by two young men looking through one of my boxes, one of them giving off excited "Vee" sounds.  
"What are you doing?!" I cried horrified that they where trying to steal from me. Both shoot up from the box like two kittens caught by a dog. That was when I saw that they where twins looking almost identical though with slightly different hair colours.  
"Vee, don't hurt us! We just wanted to know who was moving in!" One of them cried.  
"I told him it was a bad idea!" The other one cried.  
"You don't have a pasta machine!" The first one cried as if that was just as horrendous as being caught looking through my stuff.  
"Uh, no but you can't..." I began but didn't get to finish before they both grabbed the box and ran inside with it.  
"Wait! Don't take that!" I yelled and ran after them.  
A hasty run up two stairs later and I found that they had dropped off my box in my apartment before running off again. This time I closed and locked the door. It would be more complicated carrying everything up but it was safer. With that I went to get the next box. I had just dropped it off in the apartment when next disaster struck. I had just opened the door when a sound like thunder came down the stairs.  
"COME BACK AND SAY THAT AGAIN COMMIE BASTARD!" a voice roared as someone slid across the floor to then crash into the wall by the stairs.  
"Gosh! Are you ok?!" I asked shocked and not a little scared. Grunting a bit in pain a young man with blond hair and glasses stood up and turned to me. Then he smiled as if he had forgotten how angry he had seemed just a second ago.  
"Yo! You must be the new neighbour. Sadik said you where going to show up. I'm Alfred. Alfred F Jones. Nice to meet ya!"  
"Ehm. Hello? My name is Tino Väinämöinen. Nice to meet you too. Erh.. I should probably let you be on your way and go and carry up the rest..."  
"Wait, don't you have any one to help you with that?" Alfred asked suddenly.  
"No, but it's fine. I..."  
"Don't worry! I'm secretly a hero! I will help you!" He said before he enthusiastically threw himself down the stairs again. That was when I noticed that he only wore socks on his feet.  
"Shouldn't you get a pair of shoes first?!" I yelled after him worriedly.  
"Berwald, Arthur, come out! We are helping the new guy move in! You too Gilbert! Thoris!"  
Half a minute later a lot of strange people where helping me carrying in my things into my apartment. To my amazement, shame and horror I recognised one of them to be the landlord, Sadik.  
"Excuse me, mister." A small voice said by my side. I looked around but couldn't detect anyone particular in the chaos around me at first. Alfred had begun fighting with a large male with pale hair and a sweet smile on his face. Sadik was reciting a recipe to a short Asian man with his long hair in a ponytail. A man with short blond hair and enormous (I'm not joking) eyebrows carried a small boy with just as large eyebrows (his brother/son?) out of my apartment. All in all it felt like I had more people "helping" me than I had boxes to carry.  
"Excuse me." The voice said a little louder this time. Now I realised that it came from a young man who stood right next to me. He looked a lot like Alfred but had a softer tune around him and was carrying a plate of cookies.  
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realise you where standing so close." I excused myself. The man just smiled sweetly.  
"No problem. I just wanted to give you these, as a housewarming gift."  
"T that is very sweet of you. You didn't have to.." I said, deeply touched by the gesture.  
"No, please, it's nothing. It took no time at all to whip together. I hope you'll enjoy them." The man protested.  
"Well thank you. I'll come by with the plate later. What is your name?"  
"Matthew, me and Alfred lives just two stairs up..."  
"Neighbour! We solved your problem!" An exuberant voice called out. From upstairs the twins from before came carrying.. the biggest plate of pasta I had ever seen.  
"Since you can't make your own pasta we decided to do it for you. You better be grateful." The grumpier of the twins said.  
"Goodness. Everybody out of the way! They need to set that down!" I called out slightly in panic. Fortunately everybody moved away so the twins could take the plate inside without accident. It was then they seemed to decide to give me a moment of peace and started to leave. I thanked them as much I could but there was no way for me to remember everyone`s names yet. Drawing a deep sigh I leaned back against my doorpost. That was when I noticed that one of them hadn't left. I don't understand how I could have missed him before. The man was terrifying! He was tall, had a stern expression and his ice blue eyes seemed cold enough to cut through my very soul!  
"Uhm.. Hello." I more or less squeaked out.  
"Mhm." The man answered.  
"I.. I guess we are neighbours. I'm Tino. N nice to meet you. Thank you for your help earlier."  
"Hm. I'm Berwald."  
This felt... Awkward.  
"If y'u need 'ny help I live one sta'r down." He concluded and went down the stairs. That was when I realised that he felt just as awkward about the conversation as I did. And I thought to myself that I really needed to catch up with him later.  
The next couple of hours I spent sorting out my stuff, unpacking and trying the pasta from the twins (surprisingly good!). I also tried the cookies from Alfred's roommate and felt slightly bad for not remembering his name. They tasted like maple syrup. The clock was around five when I started to hear noise from outside my balcony. Curious I went out to have a look, to find half the balconies and some of the opposite house's occupied by neighbours. The loudest of them was the man with the big eyebrows from earlier who's balcony was next to mine and a man with long blond wavy hair (rather feminine if you ask me) who lived above us. They argued as if they where going to rip each others throat out any minute.  
"Hello Tino." A voice from under me called out. I looked down to see one of the boys who helped me earlier look up at me with a kind smile.  
"Thoris." He supplied helpfully. "Welcome to the evening chat."  
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.  
"Well, it's sort of a routine that we meet out at the balconies in the evenings to gossip and small talk. And for Francis and Arthur to argue." He said with a nod at the two shouting gentlemen.  
"Hav' y'u fo'nd y'urself at hom' yet?" Another voice asked from next to Thoris balcony. I immediately saw that it was Berwald from before.  
"Honestly, it's quite much to take in." I answered, a bit braver by the distance between us. Thoris smile turned understanding and for a second I thought I saw the corner of Berwald's mouth twist in a little smile. They started telling me about the people around us. Pointing them out, telling if they lived with someone, a bit about what made them unique. Well, I say them but it was mostly Thoris who talked, while Berwald occasionally filled in. He really wasn't that comfortable with talking. I was out there for two hours without noticing until I realised that I was cold and should go inside. And I was happy. It had been, pleasant.  
I went back to packing up. I had gotten to a box with more personal knick knacks. I thought it important to get them up so I could feel at home in the new apartment as soon as possible. That was where I found a framed photo. Of us. I looked.. happy. It felt like a lie now.  
I placed it upside down on the window sill and decided not to do anything about it until the next day.


	2. Open doors

Open doors.

 _An: This is mostly just a filler chapter. Hopefully the next will be longer._

I had been living in the new apartment for about three days. There was still a lot of things that confused me about the way people lived in it. One of those things where why so many kept their doors open. Sure, it ensured that the neighbours talked to each other and by now I had realised that there where no chance of robbers in this house because everyone kept close tracks on the people coming and going here. But.. why did everyone keep this up? Who started it?  
It was on this third day that I confronted the landlord, Sadik about it.  
"Oh, that." He said with a disinterested tone. "Closed doors don't survive here for long."  
"How so?" I asked even more confused than before. Instead of answering Sadik turned to the stairs and yelled upwards.  
"Hey Alfred!"  
"Yeah, what?!" The youth's boisterous voice came from upstairs.  
"I haven't seen Kiku in a couple of days! Is he sick or..!"  
He didn't have time to finish speaking before the thunder that signalled Alfred running in the stairs was heard. Seconds later a crash was heard closely followed by a terrified scream. About a minute later Alfred came down the stairs dragging a petite, very pale Asian man with him while the man in question was trying to pull on a coat.  
"You need to get out more Kiku. The fresh air will do you good." Alfred lectured as they passed us.  
"It's sort of an insurance." Sadik explained nonchalantly while I stood there trembling. "And also just caused by repeating accidents. I should probably change that lock for Kiku... Or maybe the door."  
It was after this that I also started to keep my door slightly open. Just in case.


End file.
